Big turnout for Cooney House tour

The Cooney House on St. Armands Key. Courtesy photo by Glenn Johnson, provided by Martie Lieberman.

August is not prime time for home tours, but the Sarasota Architectural Foundation put one on anyway.

It afforded the architecture buff a rare opportunity to see one of the icons of “Sarasota school” midcentury modern architecture — the 1967 Cooney House, designed by Tim Seibert, FAIA, at 44 S. Washington Drive on St. Armands Key.

The house was packed for today’s tour, held from 2 to 4 p.m. It has just been freshened up for sale by owners Ursula Kohl and Peter Bartos after the recent departure of tenants. Martie Lieberman of Coldwell Banker has the listing at $845,000.

Seibert, now retired and living in Boca Grande, spoke at length. Sam Holladay, principal of Seibert Architects, also spoke. "We had the best turnout -- it was amazing," said Lieberman.

“Clarity of concept and meticulous detail and workmanship, using ordinary materials, are what make this design work,” wrote Seibert in a 2001 article for the St. Petersburg Times, on the occasion of the house’s selection for a 25-year “Test of Time” award from the Florida Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.

The north side of the Cooney House. Staff photo / Harold Bubil; 7-31-2013.

“This house was built on a 50-foot lot as simply and inexpensively as we could make it. It had bearing block walls, a flat roof, stock windows and stucco and drywall finishes.

“What was special about the house was the pavilion living area with its 10-foot ceiling, full-height glass walls and visual extension to the outdoors. We took advantage of the heavily planted neighboring lots for the view from the living pavilion and porch, but the remainder of the four-bedroom house turns inward, providing a contrasting experience in the more intimate bedroom and service spaces.

“The simplicity of form required perfect detailing,” said Seibert, showing that he is as comfortable with the author’s pen and the architect’s pencil. “A successful flat-roof design requires clean flashing and perfectly straight gravel stops and a way for the water to leave the roof without staining white walls. Both interior and exterior walls had to be perfectly fair and flat so that the spare geometry would have perfect shadows in the strong Florida light. ‘Less is more,’ but the ‘less’ must be flawlessly done.”

The Cooney House from the back yard. Staff photo / Harold Bubil; 7-31-2013.

In a telephone interview with the Herald-Tribune, Seibert said, “Dick Cooney was my good friend; the builder, Frank Thyne, and I were friends. Terry Rowe did the interior design. It was really a bunch of people who had a meeting of the minds.”

Seibert said it was hard to get a house on a 50-foot lot, especially on a $38,000 budget. He figured it out by making the model himself.

“It met the program. My houses were all different because they met their clients’ needs. I really used to like my clients and tried to figure out how to solve their building problems.”

Harold Bubil

Harold Bubil is real estate editor of the Herald-Tribune Media Group.
Born in Newport, R.I., his family moved to Sarasota in 1958. Harold graduated from Sarasota High School in 1970 and the University of Florida in 1974 with a degree in journalism. For the Herald-Tribune, he writes and edits stories about residential real estate, architecture, green building and local development history. He also is a photographer, videographer and public speaker. Contact him via email, or at (941) 361-4805.

Last modified: August 4, 2013
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